A flu shot, teargas, and Paul McCartney

I've been meaning to update with a few adventures, but I've found myself getting easily distracted and being lazy.  My dad mentioned on the phone that people were asking about my blog, so it was a good incentive to get back on here and update.

Getting a flu shot seems to be a pretty easy thing to do, right?  Just make an appointment at the doctor and get the shot.  I can speak Spanish and know my way around, so I figured how hard can it be?

Anyone who has lived in Chile for a while probably laughed or at least cracked a smile at me being so naive.  So the adventures of getting a flu shot started at the phramacy.  It turns out that you have to go there to get your shot, and there's a discount with my health insurance (CruzBlanca, literally White Cross) and one of the pharmacies (Salcobrand) so I went to get my shot. 

So I paid for my shot, and the phramacist handed me this:

You're looking at 3 things here. 

1. a stylish grey insulated case
2. a small ice pack
3. a small box with the vaccination

When I asked about getting the shot, she explained that I have to take it to a clinica or hospital to get someone to actually give me the shot.  In the meantime I should store it in the freezer so it doesn't go bad.

So I dutifully went home and stored the shot until I could do some research on where I could get it administered a few days later.  With my health insurance there are places you can go to called costo cero (zero cost) centers for routine procedures and things that aren't major, and I found one two blocks from my apartment.  I went there the following morning and got there early to avoid any lines and crowds, not expecting too many problems.  You can start laughing now.

I showed the woman at the desk the shot, and she told me they wouldn't accept it.  I explained to her that I did exactly what they told me with keeping it in the freezer, but it turns out that they wouldn't accept it since I didn't within an hour of then.  She explained that while people may keep it in their freezer, not everyone keeps their freezers at a standardized temperature and they can't guarantee that it's still effective unless if people arrive within an hour of buying it.  She advised me to get the receipt and exchange it for a new one at the pharmacy and to come back.

OK, I can do that.  Start laughing again.

So I went home and got the receipt.  There was a Salcobrand pharmacy inside the costo cero center I was just at, so I brought it there and explained the situation.  The pharmacist kindly explained that they don't sell any flu shots at that location.  This doesn't really seem to make much sense seeing that it's a 15 second walk from the area specifically to get shots, but it's the situation.

I then remembered that there was another Salcobrand about a 10 minute walk from there, and so I decided to exchange it there.  After explaining the situation to a pharmacist she called her boss over, and he told me that he couldn't accept it.  I would have to return it to the exact location in downtown Santiago, which is near my work but about a 20-25 minute bus ride from where I live.  How hard are you laughing now?

So when I went into work I brought the flu shot in with me, and once my classes were over I brought it in and explained the situation.  I was wearing a dress shirt and tie, and I smiled the entire time I talked.  I calmly explained that I did everything the pharmacy told me to do, yet they refused to give me the shot due to the one hour window.  After about 20 minutes of them filling in paperwork and typing away at the computer, I successfully got the shot exchanged for a new one.

The receipt read 3:27 when I stepped out of the pharmacy.  I felt like I was in Run Lola Run minus the amazing soundtrack and a sidekick.  I got to the bus stop in a few minutes, but it was over a 20 minute wait for the bus.  By the time I got off the bus, it was 4:18.  I made my way to the costo cero center, and after speaking with the receptionist I found out a startling fact.  Namely, costo cero (zero cost) does not mean that you will have zero cost for services there.  I did not have any cash on me, and I had 9 minutes before the shot would expire.  You have permission to keep laughing at my expense.

The saving grace in the situation is that I explained that I live a few blocks away and asked if they could keep the flu shot in a freezer until I got back within 20 minutes, and she agreed.  After getting some money at home and coming back, I paid the 3200 pesos (about 7 dollars) waited for about 10 minutes until they called my name and took me into a room.  They got the shot out of the freezer and gave it to me.  I thanked the nurse as well as the receptionist for their help.

And so that's how to get a flu shot in Chile.

If you've been following the news here at all, you've heard about Hidroaysen project.  It's basically a huge project that will build a dam in southern Chile and power lines stretching the length of the entire country that will provide energy to big businesses.  It has been passed in one of the steps of government and needs a few more steps for it to become a reality.  A lot of people are against it becuase it will destroy huge areas of natural beauty as well as wipe out famous Chilean landmarks, and they also don't want to see big business making a profit off of a situation like that.  If you want to read more about it, follow this link:

http://www.hidroaysen.cl/eng/

Naturally, people have been protesting the project, as they feel it does not represent the people and they are against the destruction of the environment.  While these protests have been peaceful for the most part, police have been using teargas and water cannons with the crowds.  Some of my coworkers have gotten caught up in the protests and have been subjected to the teargas, and recently I read that the Chilean government has suspended the use of teargas when protests are peaceful.  It shall certainly be interesting to see how protests will happen after this and how the police will respond to them.

On a happier note, Paul McCartney gave a concert here last week at the Estadio Nacional, and once again I was able to hear it from my apartment.  He played some Beatles classics, including Hello, Goodbye, Get Back, and Yesterday.  Unfortunately I was only able to record one of the songs.  It isn't loading now, but I will try to get it on here sometime soon.

The Apartment, A Work Party, Osama, and Mother's Day

The apartment is finally furnished!  This is exciting news, is it has taken close to two months to complete this process.  Here are some much anticipated pictures:

Apparently my boss likes to have a welcoming back party once everyone has returned from vacationing in January and February, but it hadn't happened.  So I volunteered my place for the event.

I was apprehensive at first.  Not becuase of my work colleagues or boss, mind you, but because I had never been much of a successful party planner in the past.  As I was going out to buy the food and clean the apartment I had flashbacks of having "parties" at my apartment back in Los Angeles with 12 people RSVPing and only two showing up.  A few people called me to let me know that something had come up, but the majority of people didn't even bother.  I ended up being left with tons of food and alcohol the day before I left for Christmas break and then my semester in Spain.

But this turned out much differently.  Almost everyone showed up who said they would, and it was a BYOB event.  It was simply good people, good food, and good fun.  People seemed surprised at how easy it was to get to my place.  Even though it´s not near a metro stop, you can get a bus from downtown and several other areas that drop you off within a 2 block walk of my apartment.  We all kept each other cozy, and we somehow fit 16 of us into the place.

After Sun Chips, homemade garlic bread, and pizza (it was my first time using the oven), we moved the party to Plaza Ñuñoa.  Zukai Sushi is a really nice place to eat there.  It´s known for having delicious sushi, great drinks, and excellent service.  We were able to get the upstairs room reserved just for us, and we were lucky to be the first group that got to eat up there.  It had its own flat screen TV, a stereo with music separate from downstairs, and seating for about 20 (but there were 12 or so of us).  For many people it was their first time to Plaza Ñuñoa, and it looks like it won´t be their last either.  It was a really nice night, and I feel fortunate to have such great people here.

I hate to ruin such an upbeat post with the news of Osama´s death, but I would feel remiss being an American living abroad and not addressing it.  I woke up that Monday morning and turned on my laptop.  As I waited for it to start up I fixed my breakfast of whole grain cereal and a banana like always.  I checked my emails and Facebook like usual, and I was puzzled when I saw posts from people about being proud to be an American.  As I scrolled further, however, I saw posts that revealed the news.  I then went to CNN and read the news articles there.

Reading the news really affected me.  It brought back memories of seeing the news reports and the towers tumbling down and sitting in a neighbor´s dorm room to watch the news.  I remember calling home to my parents to talk to them, even though we were in South Jersey and well out of the way of where things took place.  While I didn´t have anyone suddenly taken from me on 9/11 like some people did, it brought back memories of my mother's death about 4 years ago and the feelings of loss that naturally go along with it.

It has been a challenge to find peace with her death, as cancer is something that will unfortunately continue to affect people.  I felt a sense of happiness and relief with this news, not becuase of the death of Osama, but as I hope that it can help those families to have some closure and let their loved ones rest in peace.

Then there's the news reports showing people dancing in the streets.  Before making a judgement about the situation, I have to consider a few things.  In one sense, I'm an insider to the situation being an American.  In a few other senses, however, I'm an outsider.  I didn't lose anyone in 9/11, and I am living outside of the States now.

That being said, it hurts me to see people celebrating the death of someone.  Yes, what he did was horrible and resulted in the deaths of thousands of Americans.  While I think an inner sense of relief and happiness is natural for anyone who experienced loss during 9/11, I just don't feel that celebrating in that way is dignified.   I can't say for sure, but I have the sense that not everyone who was dancing in the streets experienced a direct loss due to Osama.  While I'm not in a position to judge others since I'm not in their situation, in any case I feel like it's a poor reflection of our country and how we are seen on the world stage.

Since it's Mother's Day, today I'm going to spend the day relaxing and reflecting on my mom's life.  I found this picture of us together from my last orchestra concert in high school.  She was so proud of my musical accomplishments and you can see the emotion in her in this picture.  Happy Mother's Day Mom.

May Already

I have been meaning to update for the past week or so, but I have admittedly started to become lazy with doing so. 

April feels like it was a rather uneventful month.  With the exception of running workshops for new teachers at work, there is nothing much new with my job.  As for my apartment, I got a coffee table that matches the sofa and also has a mirror surface.

When I was at the food store last week, I found a pleasant surprise:

Yes, those are Sunchips!  They now carry all 3 varieties ath the local food store.  They are a bit expensive (1790 pesos, or about $3.50) but definitely worth it from time to time.

And now that I think about it, April did actually have a few cool events.  Easter was not conventional by any stretch of the imagination.  There was no Easter eggs, or chocolate bunnies.  Instead there was a visit to Fantisilandia.

I thought that there was going to be a lot of people since it was a holiday, but a lot of Santiguinos actually left Santiago for the weekend.  The longest we waited in a line was 10 minutes, and we got on every single ride we wanted to.  There was a train ride which had scenes from Little Red Riding Hood and other random things that was pretty cool that I hadn't seen before.  We got some ice cream and went on the Crazy Dance right after it, and with all of the spinning I was afraid I was going to lose the ice cream.  Luckily I sat down and let my stomach rest for a while and then I was fine.  I hope that wasn't a sign that I'm getting too old for amusement parks.

The other thing was the TeachingChile reunion.  It was really great seeing old friends as well as getting to know some of the new people in the group.  They had the signature Mexican food from Mi Jugo as well as snacks and refreshments.  It was warm and sunny during the afternoon and it turned into a cool autumn night.

My projects for the month of May are as follows:

1. Clean the apartment so it's decent enough to take pictures and post here.
2. Have coworkers over for a party so they see the new place.
3. Have friends (Chilean and non-Chilean) over for a separate occasion to see the new place.
4. Do some type of day trip to get out of Santiago for the day.

That's all for now.

A milestone reached and exciting new opportunities

So after having let go of the idea that it was going to happen a long time ago, I reached a milestone in my language learning: I started dreaming in Spanish!

It first happened on Saturday night, and I was driving some type of jet ski on some course.  I was going down a spiral water road (kind of like something you would see in a video game), but I took a curve too fast and fell off the road and into the ocean.  Somehow the jet ski sank, and I was left to fend for myself.  I swam around for a while and got to dry land, only to wander around to find complete desolation.  After a while I finally found a guy and I asked him, Perdona señor, ¿cómo llego a casa? (Excuse me, how do I get home from here?) Then he answered, Hay que ir por allá (You have to go that way) while pointing to his right.

I woke up not quite realizing what happened for the first few minutes, and then I was really excited.  When I was an exchange student in Germany I dreamed in German for the second half of the year, and I continued to dream in German for a good year or so after returning to the States.  Being an English teacher here and seeing how much English I speak in a day I thought it would never happen with Spanish, but getting to know my Chilean friends and spending entire days talking completely in Spanish with them has really helped me reach this milestone.

Some great opportunities have come my way here.  I was recently asked to head a team of 4 teachers that are giving an intensive English class to a bank executive for 25 hours a week.  He´s moving to New York to manage a bank there in a few months, and therefore his English has to be top notch once he arrives.  I´m teaching him for 10 of those 25 hours and am in charge of his overall program.  It´s an honor to get to work with someone so high up in a company and also to be trusted to manage his progress.

I´ve also been lucky to come across some private classes teaching English to kids.  The students are all well-behaved and eager to learn, and so it´s a really enjoyable experience.  It also makes you think of how to teach particular grammar concepts in a kid-friendly way and also is a nice break from adults for a few days a week.

And of course I have been getting together with friends and catching up on the weekends.  Here are some pictures from a sushi night, birthday outing, and a barbeque.

Cooking and Bike Rides

I love my new apartment, especially the kitchen.  It's very convenient not having a huge stove to maintain.  Rather than that, I have 2 hot plates and an oven under it.  So this is what it looks like when I'm cooking:

The space allows for just what I need, and not anything more.  And I like it that way, as I'm not consuming more than what I need as a person.

Another thing that I love about being here in Chile is that you can buy things in small amounts.  Here are packets of ketchup, mayo, and strawberry jam:

When I was living on my own back in the States I would buy things like this in average-sized bottles and packaging, which in the end would be too much for one person to eat on his own.  Then I would feel guilty about not finishing it all and having to throw it out.  What I love is that I don't experience that here.

I've been lazy about it for a while, but after almost a year I took my bike out for a ride.  I had to take it to a gas station and get air put into the tires, but the effort was worth it.  Even though we are technically in fall we're still having sunny days in the 80s.  I took a ride in a bike lane up Antonio Varas, which is a main street right near my apartment.

I encountered the usual road traps of bike riding: glass in the road, pedestrians deciding to walk in the bike lanes, and cars parked in the bike lanes.  Santiago, however, has an extra obstacle: stray dogs.  Luckily I didn't have any encounters during my ride today, but one of my coworkers had a dog chase him and then rip his pant leg off of his khakis on his way to the work.

I only rided for aout 45 minutes, but it felt great.  It reminded me of how good it feels to ride in the sunshine, and the glowing feeling you get from breaking a sweat and feeling the sun.  It also brought back memories of biking around Los Angeles before I had a car there.  I almost don't believe that I rode my bike to student teaching from Eagle Rock to Glendale 5 days a week and would regularly bike from Eagle Rock to Griffith park on the weekends.

Then I started remembering biking on past vacations: San Francisco, Berlin, Munich, Oaxaca, and Barcelona are a few of the places.  I don't know exactly what it is, but I'm realizing that biking is a pasison of mine and I always have such fond memories of it.  My bike was dormant for almost a year, but I'm glad that I finally got it back out on the road.  I'm looking forward to getting out and riding around more while we still have warm weather.

Here are some pictures from my ride today:

Good Times, Good Friends, Sensation, and Japan

The weather likes teasing us here in Santiago.  We've had days that have only gone up to 70 and have seemed like autumn, which are then followed by days with a very strong sun and temperatures of almost 95.  I actually prefer the hot weather to the cold, so if mother nature wants to tease me a bit with a cold day every once in a while but still give us nice summer days I'm ok with that.

Last weekend I went to a barbeque with friends on Cerro San Cristobal.  There were about 7 of us there, and it was nice catching up with them.  None of us could believe an entire year had passed since we arrived, and we talked about our summers and plans for staying in Santiago.  Thanks to our genius planning we didn't bring any plates with us, but we improvised and used plastic bags instead.

This weekend was the pancake breakfast that I went to last October.  They were expecting a big crowd this year and opened an hour early, so I got there right when they opened.  A big crowd came around 10, and I met up with some friends when they arrived around then.  After browsing some books we took a leisurely stroll and got drinks and chorillana.

The big event of the weekend, however was Sensation.  It's basically a huge dance party with electronic and techno music, and in order to get in you have to dress completely in white.  I got my ticket back in December, and it was an amazing event.  The theme was Wicked Wonderland, and so there were things throughout the night related to Alice in Wonderland.  There were videos of her wearing all white and going through various scenes of the story projected on huge screens around the area, white flashes of fire and fireworks, huge butterfly wings opening up after the lyrics of "spread your wings and fly" people dressed up like dolls with white hair, white balloons with lights inside of them, the list goes on and on.  In an outside area there was food and drinks as well as different companies with entertainment booths to promote their products.  I found it ironic that a cigarrette company had a booth which had large signs about the dangers of smoking was giving out lighters which also had a warning on the front of it with the same warning.  El Mercurio (a newspaper here) had a booth set up with Just Dance on the Wii, and after having played it at my brother and sister in law's house when I was home for Christmas I played a round dancing to Walk Like an Egytian.

I would be remiss to not bring up the tragedy in Japan.  I woke up last Friday morning and booted up my laptop while getting breakfast, and I went to cnn.com to see what was happening in the world.  The pictures of the tsunami sweeping over Japan seemed surreal.  The images of houses on fire while being swept along with the tsunami seemed right out of a blockbuster apocolyptic movie, not like something that was happening in real life.  I know a few people that were exchange students from Japan, and luckily they are all ok.  I also have a coworker here in Santiago who lived and taught English in Japan for three years, and he has understandably been deeply affected by it.  As the news gets worse and worse, I find myself torn between wanting to know what is happening but not wanting to since the news is so horrific there.  I also can't help but feel a bit guilty that I am living in a place that experienced an earthquake but did not suffer a fraction of the destruction and mayhem that is currently going on in Japan.  I want to make a donation to the relief efforts, but the cynical side of me fears that scammers use this as the perfect opportunity to make a quick buck.

To end on a positive note, here is the view of the Estadio Nacional from the window of my apartment.